Many times I’ve mentioned how scared I was the night of the Joplin tornado . . in a cabin by myself not even knowing what county I was in with no land line and very, very little cell service and hearing the news on the TV from what had happened in Joplin, I had never been so scared. Last night was close, if not worse, than that experience.
We have a tiny little laundry room, not much more than a closet. In fact, most closets these days are larger than my laundry room. There’s a full size stacked washer/dryer in there, and a metal shelving unit that has a microwave and all the kitchen gadgets (pressure cookers, air fryers, food processor, waffle maker, etc.). That’s the only room in our house that has no windows. The master bedroom closet has a window and it has the gas water heater. One of the other bedroom closets is next to the fireplace (and I wouldn’t want to be crushed by all that rock if it came tumbling down) and the other bedroom closet is on an outside wall. The laundry room is probably our safest spot, hoping the dryer doesn’t come tumbling down on you.
When Vince is the one who says “GO TO THE LAUNDRY ROOM!” you know it’s bad. I’m usually the one saying “maybe we should go to the laundry room”. After last night, Vince said that if we move where tornadoes are prevalent, we’re having a basement AND either an underground shelter or a concrete safe room. I’m thinking . . I can start packing!
We cannot hear tornado sirens at our house but I had friends in town texting me that the sirens were going off in town. The radar showed that the worst of the storm was going to pass right over us so we grabbed my purse, Vince’s wallet and keys to all the vehicles (not sure why we do that) and went into the laundry room. I had a couple of quilts in there, we both had our cell phones and I had my tablet. We kept refreshing the radar from Accuweather and knew the storm was getting close. We both had alarms going off on our cell phone and the weather radio in the living room was constantly going off. They were interrupting one warning for another warning. Then . . the power went off. We had nothing. No cell phone service because we use WeBoost (electric) and a microcell through the internet and without those things, we have zero cell service. We were in the dark . . no power, no internet, no phone. We had no idea what was happening but the hail sounded horrible. I kept running to the window, shining a flashlight out; Vince kept saying “Get back in here!” We had both dogs in the laundry room. Speck didn’t have a clue what was going on. Rita was in full blown panic mode.
Even after we felt like most of the storm was over and came out of the laundry room, we had thunder for at least 3 more hours. I have to say . . Rita did an amazing job of calming down. She actually got up in the chair with me, curled up beside me and slept. I could see the big lightning bolts and would rub her head and talk to her as the thunder approached.
The electricity was off from a little after 8 until sometime between 11 p.m. and midnight. It was cool enough that we could sleep without the air conditioner but without power, we also have no water and I was already thinking about not being able to take a shower, or wash dishes. Before storms, I always fill up a bucket of water in the bathroom for flushing the toilet a few times, and I fill half gallon jars with water for drinking, cooking, washing our hands and brushing our teeth. I was surprised and thankful that the power was back on quickly.
This morning there seems to be no damage other than a couple of places where we need to put more rock on the driveway. The solar panels are producing power but the reporting system isn’t working and it will be Monday before Vince can talk to Longhorn Solar about that.
The fruit trees don’t look too bad. The peaches on the trees were damaged and I’m guessing the plums were too. Holes in the fruit means they’ll probably rot and fall off the trees but the trees should be ok.
The garden . . that’s a sad tale. The tops were broken out of every tomato and even if they survive, as soon as the night temps get higher than 70°, they stop setting fruit. They won’t have time to produce new blossom and set fruit before the night temps are too high. We’ll probably get a few tomatoes but not enough to can. I was so hopeful for this year’s tomato crop. Here’s a before and after shot of the same tomato plant.
Before the Storm
After the Storm
The lettuce was starting to bolt so I’m not terribly upset about losing it.
Lettuce
With a bit of sun, most of the beans will perk up and should be ok. Some of the beans on the vines were damaged. The blossoms were all knocked off so we won’t get as many beans as we would have but they’re not lost totally.
Beans
These melons . . probably history.
Melons
The squash are twisted, turned and split. I’m hopefully they’ll survive.
Squash
These pumpkins look rough but they have lots of time to recover and I’m thinking they’ll be fine.
Pumpkins
We do the best we can but some things are just out of our control and weather is definitely one of those things. We’re truly blessed that things weren’t worse and there were no deaths or injuries and no substantial property damage in our area last night.
sharkiecat says
Saddened by the state of your garden, so much work went into it, and now its shredded. I know you’ve said this before, but its a good thing you don’t have to rely on it to feed yourself.
Mary Kunna says
How did Boots & Cat fare through this?
Marsha B says
I was thinking about you last night. I flipped by the weather channel and saw that your area was in for some rough weather. Sorry about your garden but glad to know you, Vince and the dogs are OK.
Alycia @Quiltygirl.com says
So glad you guys are all right – those are some scary weather happenings!!
Sue in Desert Hills (Phoenix), AZ (formerly in Scottsdale, AZ) says
I’m glad you are safe. After seeing your Facebook page last night, I was really concerned. How are the cats?
cilla says
Happy to hear you, Vince and the pups are safe. Good job by Rita! Sad for the garden. Can you purchase plants at a local nursery to replace them? How are Cat and Boots???
cilla says
Up here in NH I just planted tomatoes today. I’m about 5 days early so hoping for the best. We have had a frost before the full moon in May in the past. Are you able to plant again come (your) fall? Glad to hear Boots and Cat are safe and unfazed.
The Eclectic Abuela says
Sorry for the scary storm. I’m in Springfield, MO, so I certainly understand. Perhaps the temp will cooperate, so you can have tomatoes. I just want my basement to step flooding. We lost a washer, dryer, deep freeze, hot water heater, and furnace controller to the flooding last month. I was dismayed to find a wet basement again this morning, but, so far, (fingers crossed), no damage.
Diannesmith04@gmail.com says
I am so happy you and Vince are safe and you had no damage. That was one strong storm cell that I watched heading for your house. I had so many windows open on my laptop, looking at various radars, news in your area and etc. I hated you lost power and Internet but at the same time, happy you couldn’t see radar…..Darrell would ask every few minutes if I had heard from you.. At one point I even checked airline flights to see how fast I could get out there…Whether you move or stay, you need a storm shelter!!! And so do we! Lol…..My idea is you move here and we can have Vince and Darrell build us one!! Lol
Vicky McGee says
You and Vince and the critters are okay, and that’s the most important thing. But it sure is disheartening to have the garden flattened after all that work. I’m so glad it wasn’t worse than that. It’s thundering here now and Penny is between my feet.
maggie says
I am sorry about your storm damage, in Indiana we are just starting to garden, we lost an apricot tree though.
Penny in CA says
Judy, I am so thankful to read that you,Vince & dogs are ok but so sad & so sorry about your garden!
Barbara says
Please don’t laugh, I don’t have a basement, which is insane, and I’m afraid of tornados. Part of my safety plan includes putting on my bike helmet, motorcycle helmets would work, too. It’s the best way to prevent head injuries which can be fatal.
Also, have you thought about getting a hand crank radio? I have one, it is helpful to keep track of storms when the power goes out.
JudyL says
The helmet is a great idea and I know quite a few people who do that. We do have a crank radio (as well as a crank flashlight) but we live so far out and have a metal roof with very thick walls and we cannot get a signal out here at all. We can get a signal outside but during the midst of the storm, I wasn’t going to go outside. Our weather radio has an external antenna so it would work without power but we couldn’t take it into the laundry room with us because to do so, we’d have to disconnect it from the antenna.
Julie says
Please add a battery powered radio and batteries to your laundry!
JudyL says
We have a hand crank radio that works outside but it doesn’t work inside because of a metal roof and very thick rock walls. We don’t go outside in the middle of the storm to listen to the weather reports. 🙂
Dianne says
Glad you are all safe. I’m so sorry about your garden.
Ranchwife says
Scary night for all of you! Glad you’re all safe, but sad about the damage to your garden. Gardening is certainly a gamble from year to year, isn’t it? We had a similar storm blow through last night. Phone alarms were going off and hail was pounding down. Thankfully, the brunt of it was on the north and east part of the ranch, but I felt badly for the livestock. Poor things were probably hunkered down.
I agree with Vince. A storm shelter is a must. We’ve got a closet, but we’ve also got an oil pit for changing oil that we could get to.